On June 24th at 1pm ET, join Sojourners for a behind-the-scenes conversation on our June special issue, A Christian Response to America’s 250th Birthday. Together with editors and contributors, we’ll explore truth-telling, civic renewal, American exceptionalism, and what it means to follow Jesus in a nation still struggling to live up to its promise of “liberty and justice for all.”
As the country prepares to mark 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this anniversary invites more than fireworks, pageantry, or patriotic nostalgia. For followers of Jesus, it is also a moment for truth-telling, repentance, moral clarity, and renewed commitment to the common good.
Many of the planned national celebrations are already leaning into spectacle, militarism, religious pageantry, and familiar claims about America’s uniquely blessed place in history. But Christians are called to resist both national triumphalism and despair. We are called instead to ask deeper questions about the nation we have inherited: the promises worth pursuing, the wounds we must not ignore, the myths we must refuse to sanctify, and the neighbors we are called to love.
Rather than joining in bombastic celebration or retreating into apathy, this conversation will consider what civic renewal can look like for Christians today: telling the truth, resisting Christian nationalism, strengthening democracy, building belonging, and following Jesus in public life.
Moderating the conversation:
Betsy Shirley is the editor in chief of Sojourners. In the June issue, she frames Sojourners’ response to America’s 250th as an invitation to deeper faithfulness to the gospel, truth-telling, and renewed public responsibility.
Featured Speakers:
Carolyn Winfrey Gillette is the author of hundreds of hymns sung by congregations around the world. For this issue, Sojourners invited her to write a new hymn for the nation’s 250th anniversary, asking what Christians can sing in a complicated country marked by both promise and deep harm.
Josina Guess is a Sojourners associate editor.
Kenji Kuramitsu is an Episcopal priest and clinical social worker living in Chicago. He is the author of A Booklet of Uncommon Prayer: Collects for the #BlackLivesMatter Movement and Beyond. His essay in the June issue offers a pastoral and theological challenge to American exceptionalism.
Darren Saint-Ulysse is a Sojourners associate editor. His contribution reflects on flags, belonging, Christian nationalism, and what it means for the church’s allegiance to belong first to Jesus.
Jemar Tisby is a New York Times bestselling author, historian, and founder of Tisby Media, an organization dedicated to truth-telling at the intersection of faith, race, and justice. In the June issue, he calls Christians to reclaim a courageous, prophetic voice in a nation often tempted to baptize its own myths.